Tour de France: Nibali wins stage, closes in on title

Friday

Jul 25, 2014 at 12:01 AMJul 25, 2014 at 2:04 PM

ARGELES-GAZOST, France - Vincenzo Nibali crushed everyone on the last mountain leg of the Tour de France yesterday, all but ensuring that he will be crowned champion when the race ends on Sunday in Paris.

ARGELES-GAZOST, France — Vincenzo Nibali crushed everyone on the last mountain leg of the Tour de France yesterday, all but ensuring that he will be crowned champion when the race ends on Sunday in Paris.

On the big, final climb of Stage 18, the Italian broke out of the peloton, chased down breakaway riders and rode solo in front for the last five miles uphill.

Nibali, who captured his fourth stage of the Tour, finished the 90-mile leg more than a minute ahead of Thibaut Pinot of France. Rafal Majka of Poland finished third, another two seconds back.

The remarkable effort by Nibali, who’s set to become the first Italian to win the Tour since Marco Pantani in 1998, essentially reduced the race drama to who will join him on the podium on the Champs-Elysees.

“I didn’t want to lose command. My goal was to win here,” Nibali said. “It was important to me to win another stage in the Pyrenees. The team worked really hard, and this victory is for them."

Nibali also is set to become only the sixth rider to win all three Grand Tours of France, Italy and Spain. He won the Italian Giro in 2013 and the Spanish Vuelta in 2010.

One man basking at the finish line was Alexandre Vinokourov, the general manager of Nibali’s Astana team. He said the stage victory was “not by chance.”

“We said, ‘We need to show that there’s a boss,'" Vinokourov told French TV.

Although there are three stages left, today’s is mostly flat and unlikely to allow a breakaway rider to gain time. The last real challenge will be Saturday’s individual time trial, but Nibali’s lead is so big — 7 minutes, 10 seconds ahead of Pinot, and 7:23 ahead of France’s Jean-Christophe Peraud — that it would take a disaster for him to lose the yellow jersey before Sunday.

“It was a very good day,” said Pinot, who rose a spot from third, “but Nibali is untouchable."

The race for second heated up: Alejandro Valverde of Spain lost crucial seconds on the last climb and fell from second overall to fourth, two seconds slower than Peraud. But Valverde is considered a stronger time-trial rider than Pinot, and possibly Peraud.

“Everything is possible,” Valverde said. “Before, I was ahead; now, I’m behind. But it’s very tight.”

Today’s stage in southwestern France will likely end in a sprint finish, and Nibali and his Astana teammates will keep a close watch on the riders closest to him.